This invention relates to an apparatus and method for determining projectile impact locations and, in a specific application, to determining a golfer's performance in using a particular club, such as a specific iron.
The location of impact of a projectile is of interest in a number of different fields, from military to sports, and may include such subjects as range determination for firearms and for sports projectiles such as golf balls and the like. Various apparatus and methods have been proposed heretofore to determining locations of impact and for providing information about such locations to an interested user, from an artillery range officer to a ball player or golfer. Examples may be found in such prior patents as Pence U.S. Pat. No. 2,054,604; Smith U.S. Pat. No. 2,743,929; and Cornell U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,959.
None of these prior patents provide information in a manner which is particularly helpful to the skilled person attempting to improve existing skills by having better knowledge of exactly what performance can reasonably be anticipated. Particularly with a golfer, knowledge of the statistically best choice of club for achieving a particular yardage may open the possibility of a significant improvement in the golfer's game. However, such information has essentially been unavailable to golfers prior to the present invention, inasmuch as range information (that is, the distance of impact location from the tee or point of striking the ball) is extremely difficult to derive with any accuracy from driving range practice.